Thinking simplicity

The debate on mother tongue continues. And it boils down to how difficult and time consuming it is to learn a language that is of less functional value. Teach maths, science, innovation, creativity, moral values, integrity etc etc except mother tongue. When we simplify our thinking and reduce our minds to a machine, we will fail to think through an issue holistically. Is teaching the mother tongue so simple, just about an emotional attachment, about racial identity, about culture...? Come on all you silly buggers, despite all the education that you received, can you be so blinded by your individual interests to look into a pin hole and say there is the problem, a pin head? Teaching a language encompasses everything that comes with that language, its history and culture, the moral values, the ethics, the collective wisdom, a sense of being, a moral and historical compass, and everything, including creativity, innovation, science, integrity, morality and all that is about living and life. It is not simply about communication, a tool, a function or dysfunctional tool. A human bean without a language and all that comes with it, no matter how intelligent, is nothing but a machine. Living with just the English Language will determine a person's make up and a set of values, culture, philosophy, history and all that comes with it. It applies to other languages as well. Do not simply discard a language and say anything will do. A language is not simply a language. A language is the living soul of a civilisation.

The ruthlessness of being BIG

I wrote an article ‘The regulators say Yes’ to expose how dangerous the big funds are when they acted for their selfish good and with impunity. They are untouchable as the regulators believe that they needed the big funds to turn the wheels of fortune, to move the stock markets and lubricate the financial industry with their ingenious products and huge liquidity. The regulators became willing accomplices, appeasing the big funds in all their demands. Goh Eng Yeow wrote an article in the ST about learning from the Asian financial crisis when the speculators raided the markets for a big killing and almost bankrupt several countries. He is advocating that more regulations and safeguards be introduced to limit the irresponsible acts of the speculators. Actually he meant the big funds. Small speculators cannot do much harm on their own. They could only if they gang up and work in unison. Fortunately this is rare. On the other hand, the big funds, a handful of them working together can destroy a whole market of even bankrupt countries. And their untouchable status, like diplomatic immunity, only encourages them to turn wild. The ruthlessness of big financial institutions has manifested itself in all the major and minor financial centres, and Obama in particular is trying to do something to curb their extravagant and irresponsible ways. They need to be cut into smaller bits to be effective. They must be laws and regulations to limit how big they can become before they become too big to fail, and too big and dangerous. Then of course the regulators need to look in the mirror and ask how much of the crimes were part of their own doing, inviting the wolves into the dining room and dining with them. If the regulators continue to sleep with the devils, and probably benefitting from the association, this rewarding relationship will compromise their objectivity and moral responsibility to doing what is necessary for the good of the system and the investors at large.

Remembering Charlie Chan

The older generations may still recall this Hollywood creation called Charlie Chan. I think he was some kind of a Chinaman detective with the Fu Manchu moustache, slit eyes and everything of a stereotypical Chinaman except the actor. Charlie Chan was always acted by a caucasian. In those days it was difficult to find a Chinese actor to play a lead role in any Hollywood films or TV serials. I am wondering how the movies of Charlie Chan would be received today. I suspect there will be cries of racism. In the Today paper the Australian Chinese are crying foul again. The Australians are making a film about an Australian Chinese war hero during WWI. The soldier, Billy Sing, was a very successful sniper who killed more than 200 enemy soldier in the Gallipoli campaign, and was a decorated war hero. Isn't it generous for the Australians to want to make a movie of an Australian Chinese soldier? Now why the outcry? Oh, they could not find a Chinese actor for the lead role and it went to a white actor. I just hope they did not put a set of Fu Manchu moustache on this Billy Sing, and to make it more authentic, an additional pigtail will be just fine. : )

How much did we pay to be kicked around?

Heard someone said it is so cheap, only $1 per game! Really? $1 of what? How is this $1 derived? Fee divided by 4.8m people? Or fee divided by the 10% or so football fans? Then do we know how much are the rest of the world paying? How much are the Germans or Japanese paying? These are the more sensible people who would not throw their money away simply at any price? Or for that matter, how much are the football crazy nations like Brazil, England and Argentina paying, using the same formula of course? Then there are the countries that are in the competition and have more reasons to want to watch the games, how much are they paying? Cannot tell, cannot tell! Trade secret, malu? Another case of overpaying? All CEOs of corporations, public or private, have a social and fiduciary duty to make sure that money is well spent and not throw away just because it is other people's money. There must be accountability. Maybe prudence is no good. Yes this must be the reason, since we are making our consumers pay for as much as they can afford, no need to be prudent. Pay any price and just charge it to the consumers.

Football to be kicked around

Yabba dabba doo! We have the World Cup on tele! Time for big celebration. Otherwise Singapore will have go through a month of mourning. The more serious cases will suffer from withdrawal symptoms. That was how dangerously close we got to not having live World Cup football to watch. Kind of scary. Luckily someone has some sense of proportion to understand the severity of the issue and get the deal done. Never mind, football is a game of a ball being kicked around. Never mind how much. No need to know. It is money well spent, every cent of it. We have triumphed in our darkest hour. No one can deprive us of this habit of watching football. With a little money all problems can be solved. Thank you Fifa, for being so kind and generous. Thank you for fixing our craving needs. PS. Maybe someone run through the numbers in the computers and find that paying whatever to make Fifa happy is still cheaper than having Singaporeans going overseas to watch footballs. Singapore, the city that never sleeps, may become a ghost town.

Deja vu on Mother's Day

Shops catering to the love of mother are doing a roaring business these two days. Mother and motherly love sre in everyone's mind. The Sunday Times has this touching article on Madam Tay Et and her 21 year old young Kevin who is struck by muscular dystrophy. Kevin has been bedridden for the past 11 years and is reduced to nearly skin and bone. His life depends on his mother. His mother did everything for him, including brushing his teeth or changing his sleeping position. The intensity of human love knows no bounds and particularly stronger in a mother child relationship. Mother is there, always sacrificing, for their children. The human milk of kindness is not limited to just humans, and animals too can benefit from it. Many are pampering their pets with things that the average human beans can never think of. Spas, daycare, fancy food and cafes, foie gras and strollers. We are bettering ourselves from living harmoniously with all races to living harmoniously and lovingly with animals. Some even regard animals as families. And some consider animals better than children who could turn out to be spoilt brats, cruel and ungrateful. And there is this picture of two ladies pushing a beautiful pram with tender loving care. And inside sits a beautifully dressed up shih tzu. They must be part of this new family composition. The shih tzu must be calling the elderly lady grandma. And the lady must have introduced the shih tzu to her friends as my baby. Somehow I got this strange sense of sadness flowing through my veins. I could not pin point what it is, but it won't go away. It can't be deja vu for sure.

The Regulators say Yes!

There are now wild cries about what happened on Thursday in Wall Street when the stockmarket plunged nearly 1000 pts because of a likely error trade that triggered the machines to do the necessary. The stock market went into a tailspin leaving the traders and Regulators terrified but not knowing why and what to do. They are still trying to find out. They may have known the answer but refusing to face the truth. The truth is that the whole stock market system is mismanaged and completely flawed, and is a system of fraud to favour the big crooks. And all because the Regulators say Yes. The Regulators say Yes to the crooks and scoundrels who had them by the neck and telling them or dictating to them what to do. The crooks say we want to play very big and need big limits to trade and the Regulators, say Yes. The crooks say we want to trade very big and with no cost, no commission, maybe a little pittance for the Regulators, and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say they want to use machines, high speed computers to do their tradings and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say they want an open trading system to enable their machines to hook to the Regulators machines, to have all the information of traders in the market, the buy and sell orders, etc, and the Regulators say Yes. And the Regulator dismantled their proprietary system and installed an open system for the crooks to play. The crooks say they should not be penalised for using unfair means and unfair advantage against the small traders, and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say in such trading they cannot be sure if they buy and sell to themselves which is against the rules and regulations of trading, and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say in some of the things they do it could not be transparent, trading in the dark side, and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say they want to create plenty of worthless papers like CDOs and all kinds of derivatives to sell to the investors, with no guarantees, and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say the investors may not know what derivatives are all about and the Regulators must train them, and the Regulators say Yes. The crooks say if the investors refuse to trade in derivatives, the Regulators must force them to trade in derivatives, and the Regulators say Yes. And the crooks say because they are trading big, they want to have lesser regulations or deregulations, and the Regulators say Yes. And the crooks also want to short the market, sell short, even bringing down prices of good stocks at will, and the Regulators say Yes. But it is against the rules to sell short. The crooks say they can borrow scrips to settle, and technically not shorting. They want the Regulators to create a system for scrips borrowing, and the Regulators say Yes. And the regulators did not know why Dow crashed on Thursday? And the American public suddenly are so much wiser, including the professors, and are crying foul and wanting an overhaul of the system determined by the crooks and approved by the Regulators who say Yes to the crooks.

The Apple is rotten

Have no doubts about it, the Apple is rotten to the core. The superficial skin deep good look cannot hold out for long. The subprime crisis, the toxic notes, CDOs/CDS, the heavenly pay out to the bankers and finance crooks, to the lawyers, the high debt of living on borrowed money, and the whole financial system, are rotten deep inside. The stock market and the financial system need an immediate overhaul. What happened yesterday is not going to go away. It is saying it will come back again and again. The super computers and programme assisted tradings shall rule again. They are the best inventions, together with derivatives for the stock markets. Any silly country that still salivating on how great the American and western system is needs to have a reality check. To continue to ape the Americans in their wayward and irresponsible ways is a sure road to the abyss of financial destruction. What I am saying is pure bullshit. The American system is the best system to be incorporated to all the countries around the world. Then we can have everyone being as rich as the Americans and spending like the Americans. The world needs to support the Big Apple and make sure it remains pretty looking.

China coming down hard to control sky high property prices

There was a report yesterday that a property developer is slashing its prices by 15%. This must be the result of pressure from the Chinese govt to bring down the prices. Wonder if this developer is private or govt owned. If it is a private developer then it is wrong for the Chinese govt to make them slash prices. But maybe they can do it in an authoritarian state. But this will interfere adversely with market forces and market pricing. And developers will not be able to make more grotesque profits. The Chinese govt must understand that private developers are only there to make profits. Making them slashed prices is bad. But if this is a state developer, then there are reasons to do so as the govt has to manage the housing prices to make them affordable to the people. The Chinese govt will have to tussle between making housing affordable or pricing as high as possible as long as the buyers can afford to pay. The latter is obviously good as they will have more money to raise their own pay unless they are contented to be paid lesser than the private sector. At the moment it seems that they are willing to suppress the market forces and sacrifice their own pay for the good of the people. Who says authoritarian govt is bad? When they know what is good for the people and act accordingly, even a dictatorship is good. But when the govt acts against the interest of the people, even western democracy is bad.

Dow plunged 998.5 pts at its worst

Dow was trading weak yesterday but still within reasonable limits until a sudden plunge one and a half hour before closing. This is almost a 10% drop in a day and panic was in the air. It quickly recovered 650 pts to close at 10520, losing 347.8 pts. Though buy orders kicked in after the sharp plunge, the sentiment was badly hit. It was reported that it could be due to a trading error and programmed sell orders just kicked in to complete the massacre. Many people must have lost a lot of money during that 20 minutes. The stock Accenture fell from $42 to 4c but recovered to close losing only $1. Nasdaq has announced that it would cancel all trades between 2.40pm and 3pm on grounds that they were obviously error trades. What we have seen is the destructiveness of programme trading. When machine takes over, they can kill without any qualms. Programme trading in itself is an unfair advantage in favour of those with cash and machines. It is better that this process be curtailed and remove from the system before it inflicts more severe damages to the financial systems around the world. No one is pointing a finger to the possibility of an act of terror, an intentional as opposed to accidental error. Even if it is not a sabo act, a sabo act can still happen one day. This over reliance on the machine must be tempered with human control and not machine control.

The mother tongue debate

This perennial problem is resurfacing again with the MOE sending out signals that the weightage will be lowered. The two camps have their valid arguments. The pro mother tongue group see the emotional and cultural importance of their language and identity being eroded. The pragmatists just would not bother about such 'wishy washy' sentiments. All they are concerned is the utility value of the mother tongue. And if they couldn't see any value in it, and if it is too difficult for them to learn, too high an opportunity cost, do away with it. Lump it and move on. All of us went through this process of learning and schooling as children and as parents or would be parents. Learning something is never easy, especially when the heart is not there, and able to see any value in it. I had my difficulties in learning languages as well but more because of the lack of interest, neglect and not willing to put in the effort. I hardly read anything when young, not even the text books unless compelled to. Under such circumstances you can expect my grades for all the languages, Malay, Chinese and English, all bordering on the red. Eventually both Malay and Chinese were dropped and all I had now is pasar Melayu and fortunately still able to make a decent conversation in Chinese, and able to recognise some words to get by. But I regretted not doing more for these languages as their utility values are much more than I thought. They become very useful and essential when travelling around, Malaysia, Indonesia and further away. How to flirt with the mei meis if one does not know Chinese, or the sayangs if one does not know Malay: ) On the part of mother tongue, the older one gets, the more one gets sentimental and emotional to it. It is part of one's identity, one's root. It can be quite embarrassing and uncomfortable in situation when one is expected to know one's mother tongue. But of course if one has erased the meaning of race in one's mind and make up, then mother tongue is totally irrevelant. And one can stand up tall and proudly proclaim that one does not know any word about one's mother tongue and would not be bothered to know. And my English was just as bad. Nearly failed at O level, or actually failed. That was bad huh. I only picked up when I started to read more and write more. There was an urge to read and a necessity to write when one wants to submit a paper for a grade. And the more one reads, the more one writes, the easier it becomes. Be it English or mother tongue, it is the usage, the constant use of the language that makes it easy to learn. If one is from a home that does not use mother tongue, and does not make any effort to make it a working language, it is tough, sure. Let's see how Eng Hen addresses this emotional and sentimental issue in the face of the protest from the utilitarians.

Two little traders caught

They got this guy Jerome Kerviel for chalking up a loss of $8.9 billion while trading for Societe Generale, and a Fabrice Tourre of Goldman Sachs for concocting ‘Frankenstein products’ that led to the 2008 financial meltdown. Both were traders in their early thirties. And for all the things that they had done, the huge sum of money involved and the papers that were pushed around for approvals, no one seems to be responsible or know anything about their wrongdoings except themselves. This gives the impression that the two must be running the two banks independently, just like Nick Leeson, without supervision, without reporting to anyone, and answering to no one. And there are no internal audit and control systems to check their actions. And for what he had done, Jerome said he was treated like a hooker, being praised daily for the earnings he made that were good. And it could be pretty quite the same in the case of Fabrice, the darling or Fabulous Fab of Goldman Sachs. Jerome has written a book about the ‘big bank orgy’ that he witnessed as a young trader. And the rest of their superiors, the administrators and regulators are all so innocent. This is what Jerome got to say, ‘I am struck by the fact that nothing has been done during the past two years of the financial crisis so that the causes of the crisis are addressed and a situation like mine does not happen again.’ Was there a crisis? Uh no. Anything happened? Uh no. The financial system is kicking again, and the banks are making big bucks too. So what’s wrong? The financial system is fine, just fine. Time to loot again.

A Malay elite’s response

Hussin Mutalib, an Associate Professor, responded to Muigai’s recommendation to consider a ‘stimulus package’ for the Malays in a letter to the ST forum. He said that there was some merit in not dismissing Muigai’s report altogether and a little tweaking might be good. While saying this, he acknowledged that there were some govt policies that were needed from the pragmatic point of view, ie barring Malays from sensitive appoints in the SAF and the adoption of GRCs to prevent qualified Malays from defeat in an election. There are good and bad in such policies which are obvious. Hussin also dispelled the beliefs that the Malays were being discriminated against, and non Malays were simply smarter than Malays. The former is generally true except for the appointment to sensitive positions but there is a pragmatic angle to it. The second belief has been proven wrong in many instances when Malay students have excelled and better themselves over the other races on their own merits. Every 500 years a genius could be thrown up from any race or class while every group will have their talents and duds. The disparity in the progress between Malays and the other races has been there since independence. Historically, during colonial days and post independence, the progress of the various races, particularly in schools, were left primarily to their own individual effort. All started from the same footing with no special assistance or affirmative action. Why then is there a need to have some form of affirmative action to help the Malays now? In this line of thought, there is an assumption that the Malays will do better than what they are today if given some assistance. Also, the disparity is seen as something abnormal and unacceptable. What if the disparity is in favour of the minorities and not the majority, would affirmative actions be deemed necessary? There are some questions to be asked. After more than a century of coexistence, the present status quo could be the natural balance of things. If this situation has come about naturally after so many years, would a window period of a few years of affirmative actions make any difference? What if, after affirmative action, and the Indians or Chinese become the least progressive, does it mean that there will be a need for affirmative action as well? Where will all these lead to? Would it be satisfactory only if the majority is the group that is lacking behind the minorities? Or is the expectation that an acceptable status is that all three groups are progressing at the same rate? Is this natural or possible, or a should be situation? Given the rate of progress that is being made by all groups, would it be a better objective to raise the level of every group, to improve their well beings, rather than to harp on the fact that one group is two steps behind another? It is never the natural order of things that everything is the same or can be the same. Can all countries in the world progress at the same pace and be at the same stage of economic development? Seriously, is affirmative action the answer? If the community is not honest enough to face the problems and address them squarely, no affirmative action can bring about positive changes.

Time to fix the rating agencies

The scoundrels at Capitol Hill are sleeping with the bankers and finance thugs in New York and are skirting around many areas that they should be looking into. According to a New York Times editorial in Today's paper, they have completely missed out the rating agencies like Moody's, Standard and Poor, and Fitch. These agencies are equally culpable for the mess in the financial meltdown with their triple A ratings on toxic CDOs. The editorial commented, 'It is not just that raing agencies are incompetent, made wrong assumptions about the housing market and used flawed models to evaluate mortgage-backed securities. Their business is rife with conflicts of interest.' The last sentence is the crux of the matter. Conflicts of interest among financial institutions and the products they are selling. The call for banks to return to its traditional business and not be allowed to dabble in all kinds of investment is a move in the right direction. In the local context, conflicts of interest is also a serious problems. But of course in the land of demigods and immortals, they could not see themselves compromising on their heavenly integrity. They will never be faulted for conflicts of interest. They could even be tasked to self regulate their activities. A similar case to the rating agencies that have been allowed to get away scot free is the lead managers and auditors that brought in shady companies for listing. Several have gone down the drain despite the glowing reports put up by the auditing companies. And no one is taken to task. The whole finance world is run by scoundrels and crooks protecting each other's backside. The world is looking to America to take the lead, for they do not know how or want to do anything.

100,000 more jobs coming

We can expect 100,000 jobs to be created and some will definitely have to go to foreign talents. How many will go to them and how this will translate into more foreigners in the country and how this will affect our infrastructure and housing for our people is an urgent problem? Do we have the ability and people to compute all these and start doing the necessary so that no one will be caught off guarded again? A 50% of these jobs going to foreigners could add 200,000 people into the system, assuming each comes with a family of 4. The failure in our housing system to cater for such big inflows of residents here should be a lesson not to be repeated. Then the transportations, even COEs will be affected. The eating places, entertainment, ok we have two casinos to take in some of the influx, but many facilities will be stretched and stressed. Are we prepared for our targeted 6m population? I know many are and have already bought into properties and waiting for the prices to go through the roof. For those who are still looking for a property, better go and grab anything that is available. The shortage is unlikely to be met if history is to tell its story again. Before we bring in another 200,000, let’s get the housing sorted out first. This is the commonsensical thing that any simple mind would not fail to miss. At this moment I don’t think anything has been done on this area. Some people even believed that the demand for BTO launches were fake.

Human rights lesson from Singapore

Maxwell Coopers wrote an article in FreeMalaysiaToday forum with the above title. He was amused by the UN representative, Githu Muigai's recommendations about what Singapore should do to improve its human rights. I too agree with Maxwell. What Muigai should do is to look at all the countries around the world and see if any of them could have a better system and record than Singapore on human rights and treatment of minorities. Look at countries around Singapore for comparison. He should be there instead of in Singapore. There is one good reason for him to be in Singapore. And that is to study the brilliant and workable system that we have put to practice and how the general well being of our minority groups are better than the standard of living of majorities in other countries, and how they could practise their customs and cultures freely as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. The majority is also subject to this restraint. This will be the best testimony that Muigai could bring to the UN and recommend that the Singapore system be used as the model for other countries plagued with discriminations against their minorities. I think he would have done a great job in doing this and will receive a standing ovation at the UN instead of his ridiculous recommendations to improve a system that can only be found workable in paradise.

Myth 221 - Singaporeans are hard to please

Is that so? The official line is that Singaporeans are fuzzy, choosy and very difficult to please. I don't know how people got that impression. My impression is that Singaporeans are so easy to please. They can be easily appeased and will feel very grateful if given a few dollars. The 1% CPF hike is an excellent example of how easily contented are Singaporeans. The $10 to $40 hike in CPF contribution is already a call for celebration. They were so happy, even when they cannot touch the money for another 30 years. So how can Singaporeans be called choosy and fuzzy and hard to please? Actually there are some Singaporeans that are hard to please. Even with salary that can buy them a million dollar private property every year and they arestill not happy, and asking for more. But these are few and should not be generalised. So the fuzzy, choosy and hard to please Singaporean is a myth or a legend?

Banks should do the right thing?

The Obama govt is trying to cut down the banks to size. Banks should return to do traditional bankings, ie deposit taking and not investing activities. Banks should not be allowed to do all kinds of businesses and grow to a size that they cannot afford to fail. Smaller banks will make the banking system safer. Making the banking system safer is THE right thing to do. The last financial crisis is a warning that if it is not done, the next one could wipe out everything. But no, no one is taking heed even if it is the right thing to do. The popular thing to do is to continue with the looting. The bigger the banks the better as they could muscle in to all deals, conflict of interest is never a consideration. Moral righteousness is not an issue. The issue is to make as much money as possible, at all cost. The looting mentality is so prevalent that it must have sicken the Obama administration. And it is reported that the legal fees for the bankruptcy proceedings of Lehman is now US$730m and will hit $1b. And those in the know knew that many of the charges were exorbitant and questionable. But that is the game big financial thieves are playing. And people just smile and say that's the way it is. Join in the game and have fun. Who cares about whether it is the right thing or wrong thing to do. This join in and have fun mentality of irresponsibility is sweeping across the world. We can also see it manifesting in our way of life. Everyone is also grabbing whatever they can. That's the way it is. It is not a matter of doing the right thing but what and how much one can get out of it. This is the new morality of the 21st Century.

Hanging modern day thieves

The New York SEC is throwing charges at Goldman Sachs for financial frauds and selling fraudulent CDOs out to cheat the innocent investors. So far there appeared to be strong prima facie evidences to bring Goldman Sachs to the courts, but whether anyone will be put behind bars is another matter. The final outcome could be a hefty fine on Goldman Sachs as an organisation and not a single thief found guilty. And they could continue with their game of deceit and theft. What the public have failed to see or not led to see is the role of the SEC. Is SEC culpable, an accomplice to all these big thieves, abetting and helping them in their fraudulent ways? The SEC is a regulator to provide a set of rules and regulations, and a sound system, a level playing field, that is fair to all players in the finance industry, including the stock market. What if the SEC connived, innocently or uninnocently, undestood or misunderstood the dangers of a system that they approved for the investors, should they also be hanged? The Senate and Congress must investigate the role of the SEC as well, the financial systems, rules and regulations and practices to see if the SEC is also at fault. Looking at the unfair practices, a far from level playing field, and the unfair advantages of the big funds against the small investors, the SEC is as guilty as Goldman Sachs and must be answerable to their misdeeds, if proven. All thieves, whether they be big financial organisations or regulators, are thieves if proven so and must be hanged.

May Day rejoicing

Our CBF workers were rewarded yesterday with a gift that would make them happy for the next 30 or 40 years. The employer will raise their CPF contribution by 1%. Half of this will go to Medisave Account and the other half will go to the Special Account. As these accounts are not to be touched for a very long time, the workers will have a very long time to enjoy that special smile on their faces when they received their CPF monthly statements. For a worker earning $2,000 pm, he would get $20 more monthly in his CPF. This will work out to be $240 pa and $2,400 for every ten years. Adding interest, this will be quite a significant sum to appear in his Medisave and Special Accounts. Now they are celebrating this windfall in the May Day Celebration.